; Tom Robinson Band: The Albums 1978-79

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2 CDs

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‘Sing in case you’re glad to be homosexual/sing in case you’re blissful that manner.’

Individuals who grew up within the seventies and the eighties will actually admire how courageous and weird it was for a chart star like Tom Robinson to face up onstage singing these phrases, merely exhorting individuals to be happy with who they’re.

It spoke to these youngsters in cities throughout the nation getting queer bashed, and others hiding to date within the closet they had been in all probability in Narnia. It was a clarion name for equality in a Britain the place there have been no high-profile homosexual position fashions within the media, and even within the music world; knowledgeable by Robinson’s personal experiences at a Quaker public faculty the place he fell in love with one other pupil aged 16 at a time when being homosexual risked a jail sentence.
It’s a superbly crafted anthem with a singalong refrain that was additionally typical of how offended the Tom Robinson Band – or TRB as most individuals dubbed them – had been. That was particularly evident on their nonetheless thrilling debut album, Energy In The Darkness, which will get a welcome reissue on this two-disc set.

Earlier than that in 1977 because the punk wars raged, TRB had a shock top-five hit with the insanely catchy 2-4-6-8 Motorway, which was based mostly on a chant typically heard at Homosexual Liberation marches at a time when being brazenly homosexual on the road was a really dangerous enterprise. That hit wasn’t included on Energy, so the only and a demo that’s similar to the recorded model are included as extras.

As are the 4 tracks on the Rising Free EP recorded at totally different London venues capturing what a terrific dwell band they had been on the time. The EP included Glad To Be Homosexual, which was so controversial that Radio One had stickers on their copies of the highest 20 hit making it clear it might solely be performed with the permission of the station controller, which simply appears totally weird nowadays. Don’t Take No For An Reply is a traditional slice of TRB agit-prop that units out their manifesto as does the marginally heavy-handed, however well-meaning, Proper On Sister, and there’s some pub rock on Martin.

In early 1978 it was time to document Energy Within the Darkness, produced by Chris Thomas who did the honours with the Pistols, and he was the proper man to harness their mixture of pub rock and punk vitality. TRB had been across the London pub circuit for a few years so had been seasoned musicians, particularly the astonishing bluesy lead breaks of Danny Kustow and Dolphin Taylor’s driving drums. Teenage keyboardist Mark Ambler performs with a maturity manner past his years and Robinson is an underrated bassist. They had been primed for his or her debut filled with nice tunes and politics which have stood the take a look at of time significantly better than many different albums of that interval.

They set their stall out proper from the off with the defiant anthem Up Towards The Wall, with a killer riff from Kustow, earlier than some pure pub rock on Gray Cortina, which for youthful readers is a tune a couple of common motorcar. Ain’t Gonna Take It’s the nearest to punk they get earlier than the elegant Lengthy Sizzling Summer season and the apocalyptic The Winter Of ’79, which foresaw the chaos simply across the nook as garbage piled up on the streets and the lifeless went unburied.

The sentiment of the reggae-tinged Higher Resolve Which Facet You’re On is a contact apparent, and cowbells make an look on the raging title observe, which is the easiest way to finish a righteously offended document. The extras embody a stunning cowl of Dylan’s I Shall Be Launched and I’m All Proper Jack, which summed up what would occur in Thatcher’s Britain a yr later. There’s a pointless dwell cowl of Ready For My Man, so greatest to simply skip over that.
Robinson was a characteristic on music paper covers, who initially beloved his mix of political pop, however they had been the masters of ‘construct ‘em up and knock ‘em down’ at the moment, so had been solely too glad to pile in on TRB 2 launched in March 1979. Trying again they may have had some extent as it’s a weaker album, particularly with Ambler leaving and Dolphin Taylor strolling out simply earlier than the periods, and the band break up up 4 weeks after its launch.

It does have the texture of a band in disaster and is a little bit of a curate’s eggs musically. The messy really feel isn’t helped by the choice to herald American prog rocker Todd Rundgren to supply who provides it a way more polished really feel, and Robinson is much less direct lyrically.
All Proper All Evening is predicated round a terrific refrain, however is a bit light-weight lyrically, and the bluesy Black Angel has a terrific solo. Let My Individuals Be Imagines the experiences of a Latin American freedom fighter, and with the massacre after the 1973 Chilean coup recent in individuals’s reminiscence is transferring.

The poppy single Bully For You was co-written by Peter Gabriel who was constructing his solo profession and following the dying of Liddle Towers in police custody Robinson was impressed to put in writing the searing Blue Homicide. The album was truly devoted to Liddle’s mum. There are a few shockers, which in all probability wound up the music press, together with Crossing Over The Street and the horrible Legislation And Order.

Extras embody a tough mixture of Bully For You and Fits Me Fits You, which ought to have been on the album, and the one observe recorded throughout their disastrous Rockfield Studio session. Additionally included is the disco-influenced By no means Gonna Fall In Love…(Once more) which was co-written with Elton John and proved to be the final tune the disintegrating band recorded

Each albums are deserving of a reissue, but it surely’s Energy Within the Darkness that does precisely what it says of the tin shining a beacon of hope to the outsiders and the rebels in a nation that was traumatised by punk. It says one thing that if it was written as we speak many of the themes it explored could be simply as related in a rustic the place individuals nonetheless die in police cells and over one million individuals depend on meals banks.

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Phrases by Paul Clarke, you possibly can see his writer profile right here.